The Columbia River Gorge and adjacent Cascade Volcanoes, Washington and Oregon, USA
** Optional AI models and flight plans **
- A tribute to the staff and community at www.hovercontrol.com, headquartered at Hood River (4S2)
File Name: gorge_ai.zip
Author: Holger Sandmann, hsandman@sfu.ca, with additional models and textures by Jordan Moore, Greg Pepper, Warren Landis, Tom Miller, Mitsuya Hamaguchi, Dobro, and M. Allen Richards
Date of Release: February 2005
Version: 1.00
These files add custom AI floatplane and ship traffic on the Columbia River between Washougal and The Dalles, as well as GA flightplans for some of the smaller airfields in the coverage area. Included are the HU-16 Albatross (Greg Pepper/Warren Landis), two variants of the Monocoupe 135 (Tom Miller), a S300C helicopter on floats (Jordan Moore), as well as Hovercraft and Jetfoil vessels by Mitsuya "Hama" Hamaguchi using repaints by M. Allen Richards and Dobro. All models have custom flight models and dynamic water effects. The AFCAD files and flightplans are specific to my Columbia River Gorge package (cr_gorge.zip) but the included AI models can be utilized in other locations for which custom AFCAD files are available. For more details on AI floatplanes and ships see my ai_ships, ai_shipx, and ai_floats.zip packages.
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Contents and Features:
* Two custom AI floatplanes (HU-16 Albatross and Monocoupe 135), one AI helicopter on floats (Schweizer 300C) and two AI vessels (Hovercraft and Jetfoil).
* Two seaplane bases (AFCAD only): Hood River harbor (4S2F) and Washougal harbor (11W1). The floatplanes and helicopter fly local circuits or travel between these two bases. The Albatrosses fly day and night whereas the Monocoupe's during daytime only.
* Three "shipping lanes": between The Dalles dam and Hood River (4S23), Hood River and Bonneville dam (4S22), and Bonneville and Washougal (4S21). The central lane is used by the Jetfoil, and the western and eastern lanes by Hovercrafts in two different repaints. The ships are active day and night, year-round.
* Daytime light GA traffic (utilizing default airplanes) at ten local airfields: 4S2, S48, KCZK, KDLS, 66WA, 5WA7, 4OR6, KTTD, 03S, and OR50
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Installation in FS2004:
Note: Requires prior installation of my cr_gorge.zip package, which includes the river data as well as the water-based AFCAD files for the AI models and their flightplans.
1) Extract "gorge_ai.zip" to a temporary directory, making sure that the "use folder names" option is enabled.
2) Move the five "ZZZA*" folders into your "FS9\Aircraft" folder.
3) Move the twelve .fx files into your "FS9\Effects" folder.
4) Move "Traffic_GA_CRGorge.bgl" into your "FS9\Scenery\World\scenery" folder
5) Start FS2004 and make sure that AI traffic is active for both GA and commercial and that the slider is at 1 percent or higher
6) Enjoy the AI company!
P.S.: The AFCAD file for the Hood River seaplane base utilizes Samuel Schneeberger's great "Hood River Seaplane Station", available at Hovercontrol, Avsim, and other places. The AI floatplanes work without that base but they will then park in the open water rather than next to Samuel's docks.
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How to Uninstall:
Delete the following folders:
ZZZA Floathelo Schweizer 300C CRG
ZZZA Floatplane HU-16 Albatross CRG
ZZZA Floatplane Monocoupe 135 CRG
ZZZA Vessel Hama Hovercraft CRG
ZZZA Vessel Hama JetFoil CRG
... and the following file:
FS9\Scenery\World\scenery\Traffic_GA_CRGorge.bgl
The small custom effects file can remain in your FS9\Effects folder without creating problems.
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Limitations and Known Issues:
* All AI aircraft are mapped to one of four basic sound categories - single prop, turbo twin, small jet, or large jet - whose sound files (starting with "ai_") are located in the FS\Sound folder. Any sound files you place in your AI aircraft's sound subfolder, or any attempts at setting an alias, will be ignored by the AI engine. Since MS didn't include AI helicopters there's no AI sounds for the choppers and the sounds you will hear are based on the "donor" aircraft configuration file, in this case a piston engine.
* For similar reasons the AI ships sound like turboprops and the HU-16 (due to problems with the flight dynamics file) like a small jet ;-(
* AI pilots aren't the smartest when it comes to proper approach procedures. They often don't care if a mountain is in their way, either crashing on contact (i.e., disappearing) or flying straight through it.
* As any AI aircraft in FS9, the floatplanes will sometimes get "pushed back" before beginning to taxi. I have set up drive-through parking spots but whether the aircraft will leave the parking spot forward depends on the direction of the active runway.
* AI aircraft taxiing on water are sensitive to any changes in water elevation. If you approach a floatplane quickly or switch to it via Ctrl-W, the FS display engine will often adjust water levels, which may make the aircraft bounce (though they usually don't crash).
* The floatplanes don't seem to "see" each other. If two planes reach the same hold-short node at the same time, they may end up on top of each other. The usual extra blue node doesn't seem to make a difference here.
* The AI ships' "airports" (4S21, 4S22, 4S23) show up in the GPS/Map and "Go To Airport" menu. However, if you start a floatplane flight at a "gate" at 4S21, 4S22, or 4S23, your aircraft will occupy the single parking spot available and thus the corresponding AI ship will not show up!
* The "flight plans" are set to start a ship as soon as possible after it gets loaded into the active AI radius (approx. 40 miles around the user's airplane). Depending on the current time, the ship might remain inactive for up to 15 minutes.
* The ships travel at 10-20 kts along their fixed route until they reach the "runway", about one hour after starting their journey. There they will head into the direction of the active "runway" and remain in position indefinitely.
* Under certain weather conditions, particularly with real-world weather, the smoke and spray effects of the ships disappear. Manually adjusting the direction of the wind often brings them back.
* AI Ships with underwater bodies, like Hama's Jetfoil, are very sensitive to changes in water elevations. If you approach them quickly or switch to it via Traffic Tools or Crtl-W, the FS display engine will often slightly adjust water elevations, which can be enough to "crash" the ship (it disappears).
* Similarly, changes in water elevations may make the Hovercrafts bounce but they won't disappear.
* Thanks to Jordan Moore, Greg Pepper, Warren Landis, Tom Miller, Mitsuya Hamaguchi, Dobro, and M. Allen Richards for granting permission to use their fine models and textures for this project.
* Thanks to Al Kaiser for allowing me to include the altered flight model files of his wonderful Stemme motor glider.
* Thanks to Hugo and Edrick, of the AVSIM Bush Flying Unlimited forum, for some of the key ideas that allow us to make AI ships and floatplanes splash around.
* Thanks to Lee Swordy for his indispensable freeware utilities and their well-written documentation.
* As usual, thanks to J for her blank but simpatico stare at my time-consuming 'hobby' ;-)
The author is not responsible for any damage, which may result from the use of this product.
Use at your own risk. No warranty is offered.
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Logo and Trademark Notice:
ANY and ALL company Logos and Trademarks presented are copyrighted by their respective owners. They are depicted here as artist's presentation for illustrative purposes only.
This scenery is released as Freeware. As an End User you can do whatever you want with these files. For redistribution on storage media or via the Internet (which I encourage), a number of conditions apply:
1) The archive must be distributed without modification to the contents of the archive. Redistributing this archive with any files added, removed, or modified is prohibited.
2) The inclusion of any individual file from this archive in another archive without my prior permission is prohibited.
3) No charge may be made for this archive other than that to cover the cost of its distribution. If a fee is charged it must be made clear to the purchaser that the archive is freeware and that the fee is to cover the distributor's costs of providing the archive.
4) I request a brief email notifying me of the website and/or procedure used for redistribution.
